Networking is a critical element for success in any
industry. It is something that is
hardwired into each of us. We were
networking as far back as elementary school.
We have an inherent need to connect with people.
John Naisbit is the world’s best known observers and analysts
of global trends. His first book,
Megatrends was published in 1980. He
coined the phrase "High Tech equals Hi Touch."
He came to this conclusion long before social media.
While everyone is enamored with social media as networking heaven and are
attracting followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, this acceptance of Hi
Tech does not get us to Hi Touch.
Naisbitt’s premise was that as our culture becomes more dependent on
technology, there will be an equal force causing us to connect more with each other
more.
This is where the networking rubber meets the road. They don’t teach this in college or graduate
school. Effective networking is hard
work. It doesn’t have to be a baptism by
fire or trial and error. Social media should work like a networking magnet, attracting people and clients to you. But this is only one step in your networking journey.
Today, I want to take you on a journey that will open your
mind to the simplicity of networking and the value it can bring to your career.
How many principals and firm officers believe in the Golden Rule? He who has the gold makes the rules?
This can be a curse when it comes to networking. The attitude this presents produces one
direction networking. It is almost a
clique type of networking. You start to
network only with people inside your cocoon. I don’t have time to go into the
psychology of this, but simply want to say that networking is not your father’s
climbing the corporate ladder.
Networking today is like the Double threaded helix of DNA. It is more complex. To understand this we need to go back to the
beginning.
Where did the word networking come from? It is an ancient word that began as two words
net and work. It referred to the craftsman who put fishing nets together. What is the most important part of a fishing
net? There are different sizes of rope used for catching different types of
fish. But the most important part is the
connections. As the size of the rope
increases, so does the size of the knots that connect the rope. The knots have to be placed strategically
depending upon the type of fish. Too
much space between knots and your catch gets away.
Too little space and you catch fish that aren’t worth
keeping. You should look at your networking this way.
Let me use LinkedIn as an example. Your connections are called the first. If one of
your contacts is connected to someone, they
are 2nd. If that person is
connected to someone, the person is third and so on. The LinkedIn model is really based upon the six
degrees of separation. It feels good to be connected directly to 500 people and indirectly to over 100,000. Are these connections worth keeping? How many help you secure business? How many are really active on LinkedIn?
Is your network big enough or strong enough to capture the
clients you need the most. If not, how
do you build it?
I worked with a networking genius when I first got into the industry. He was the vice president of marketing and
hired me to sell services in the Midwest.
His training program consisted of handing me a dozen project photos,
telling me to learn the names of company officers and stating I would do
fine. I did, but it wasn’t because of
that training program. It was because of the networking example he lived. He
told me to join some allied industry associations and that I had to get
involved. “You get out of it, what you
put into it,” was his motto. You have to be active on committees and boards and not just attend meetings to hand out business cards. This guy
was responsible for national sales for this engineering/architecture firm with
nine offices across the country. The
headquarters was in Chicago. He lived in St. Louis. He left his house Sunday
night or Monday morning and would return home on Friday. He spent a lot of time on the phone next to
binders of business cards. He was
successful because he kept in contact with people he met. He knew people in every industry but concentrated on developers and commercial real estate. On the outside, he met a lot of people who
were not in positions to help him. He
would help the people who needed it the most but deserved it the least. He was at a party in California playing
tennis with Paul Tagliabue, then commissioner of the NFL,( He was a habitual name dropper) when the conversation
of a new NFL stadium came up. Our firm
didn’t have any interest in it, but he knew an architect who worked for a firm
that designed stadiums. The architect
had also turned him down on a recent proposal. Tabliabue gave him the
particulars of contact people at the NFL team who would be looking to hire a
design team. Later that night, he called
the architect with the news. Fast
forward three years, Disney is getting ready to expand Disneyland. It will
include the largest parking structure in the world. The architect’s firm has been hired to
prepare a master plan and help Disney select consultants. Disney was not thinking about selecting a
specialty firm to design the parking structure, until the architect was called
and told about the facility we were doing for Universal Studios in
Florida. We were chosen to design the
parking structure at a fee in excess of $6 million or a project value in excess
of $150 million. Some would have called this luck, coincidence or chance. I believe that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. It could also be called Networking 2.0.
The moral to the story: Your network is only as good as the
trust you build with connections. You build trust by helping connections when
there is nothing in it for you. Clients
in any industry have an aversion for helping people who always come to them
with their hands out.
The complete presentation can be scheduled by contacting Tryst Anderson. The one-hour program can be completed over breakfast, lunch or dinner during a retreat, monthly meeting or in-house training class.
